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In a press conference on Tuesday (May 12), Health minister Gan Kim Yong said that they are hoping to "roll back more measures" on June 1 "if all goes well".

If cases remain low

The CB measures "have shown promise in reducing Covid-19 infections locally in the community", he said.

If the number of new cases of infection continues to be low, Singapore can allow more economic and social activities to be restored, he said.

As of May 12, some of the circuit breaker measures have been progressively lifted. Some businesses, including hairdressers and TCM medicine halls, have resumed operations.

Gan, however, emphasised that Singapore must not be "lulled into complacency or let our guard down" as circuit breaker measures are gradually relaxed.

A roadmap will be set out for the easing of measures, Gan said. With every step, they will continue to closely monitor the numbers to ensure the situation is under control.

If, for instance, there is a spike in cases at the first step of easing of measures, some measures may then have to be reintroduced.

Broad trends

Director of communicable diseases at the Ministry of Health (MOH) Vernon Lee also gave an update on the broad trends regarding the Covid-19 epidemic in Singapore.

Lee noted that Singapore is seeing a decline in the number of cases in the community in the past month.

He also noted that cases involving work permit holders outside of dormitories are also showing a decline. Most of these, he said, are construction workers who were already on SHN.

Lee said that the number of cases in the community have peaked about the end of March or early April, and for the past two weeks, Singapore has been seeing mostly less than 10 per day.

Gan also said that the situation in the migrant worker dormitories is "stabilising".

Starting post-CB with lower baseline

Responding to a question asking how certain the authorities are that the number of cases will remain low even after CB measures are loosened, Lee said that circuit breaker measures are to help keep risk of transmission low.

When there are fewer cases in the community, there is a lower risk of transmitting to more additional cases.

He explained:

"That's why the circuit breaker's in place, to keep that number as low as possible. The objective is then, when we lift the circuit breaker and there's a little bit more activity, actually the risk of transmission will be very low because we're starting from a much lower base than before.”

Update on numbers as of May 12

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has preliminarily confirmed 884 new cases of Covid-19 as of 12pm on Tuesday, May 12.

There are also three Singaporeans/Permanent Residents among the confirmed cases.

The majority of the cases are Work Permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories.

This brings the total number of cases in Singapore to 24,671.

Total daily increase for past seven days:

• May 5: 632
• May 6: 788
• May 7: 741
• May 8: 768
• May 9: 753
• May 10: 876
• May 11: 486

Total daily increase of Singaporeans/PRs infected with Covid-19:

• May 5: 8
• May 6: 11
• May 7: 5
• May 8: 10
• May 9: 9
• May 10: 3
• May 11: 2
• May 12: 3

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top photo via CNA Live and Mothership